No More Learning

Bacchus —
Why, that's a lucky thought. I only wish It had happened to occur before you beat us.
Scene : Xanthias and ^Eaous.
[When two persons, perfectly strangers, are thrown together in a situation which makes it advisable for them to commence an immediate intimacy, they commonly begin by discovering a marvelous coincidence of taste and judgment upon all current topics. This observation, which is not wholly superfluous here, appears to have been so far trite and hackneyed in the time of Aristophanes as to allow of its being exemplified in a piece of very brief burlesque. Xanthias and jEacus are the strangers ; they discover immediately an uniformity of feel ing and sentiment upon the topics most familiar to them as slaves, and conclude by a sudden pledge of friendship. It is to be observed that, in the dialogue which follows, iEacus never departs from the high ground of superiority in point of local information. All his answers have a slight tinge of irony, as if he was saying, " Yes — much you know about it l "]
^Sacus —
By Jupiter ! but he's a gentleman, That master of yours.
Xanthias — A gentleman ! To be sure he is : Why, he does nothing but wench and drink.
58
THE MOCK HERCULES.
JEacus —
His never striking you when you took his name — Outfacing him and contradicting him ! —
Xanthias —
It might have been worse for him if he had.
jEacus —
Well, that's well spoken, like a true-bred slave. It's just the sort of language I delight in.
Xanthias —
You love excuses ?
jEacus —
Yes, but Iprefer Cursing my master quietly in private.
Xanthias —
Mischief you're fond of ?
What think ye of muttering as you leave the room After a beating ?
jEacus — Xanthias —
Very fond, indeed.
jEacus — Xanthias —
Why, that's pleasant, too.
By Jove, is it ! But listening at the door To hear their secrets ?
jEacus — Xanthias —
Oh, there's nothing like it.
And then the reporting them in the neighborhood. jEacus —
That's beyond everything. — That's quite ecstatic. Xanthias —
Well, give me your hand. And there, take mine — and buss me —
And there again — and now for Jupiter's sake ! — (For he's the patron of our cuffs and beatings)
Do tell me what's that noise of people quarreling And abusing one another there within ?
jEacus [as if to say, " You're a new man — we're used to this "] — iEschylus and Euripides only ! — —
Xanth ias— Heh ? ? ? jEacus —
Why, there's a desperate business has broke out
Among these here dead people; — quite a tumult. Xanthias —
As how ?
^Eacus — First, there's a custom we have established
In favor of professors of the arts.
When any one, the first in his own line,
Comes down amongst us here, he stands entitled
THE MOCK HERCULES. 69
To privilege and precedence, with a seat
At Pluto's royal board.
Xanthias — Iunderstand you. uEacus —
So he maintains till there comes better
Of the same sort, and then resigns Xanthias —
But why should iEschylus be disturbed at this jEacus —
He held the seat for tragedy, as the master
In that profession.
Xanthias — Well, and who's there now
JEacus —
He kept till Euripides appeared: But he collected audiences about him,
And flourished, and exhibited, and harangued Before the thieves, and housebreakers, and rogues, Cut-purses, cheats, and vagabonds, and villains, That made the mass of population here
— [Pointing to the audience. being quite transported and delighted
And they
With his equivocations and evasions, —
His subtleties and niceties and quibbles
In short — they raised an uproar, and declared him Arch-poet, by general acclamation.
And he with this grew proud and confident,
And laid claim to the seat where JSschylus sat.
Xanthias —
And did not he get pelted for his pains
jEacus [with the dry concise importance of superior local informa
tion] —
Why, no — the mob called out, and was carried,
To have public trial of skill between them. Xanthias —
You mean the mob of scoundrels that you mentioned jEacus —
Scoundrels indeed Ay, scoundrels without number. Xanthias —
But jEschylus must have had good friends and hearty ^Eacus —
Yes—but good men are scarce both here and elsewhere. Xanthias
Well, what has Pluto settled to be done jSSacus —
To have an examination and trial In public.
up.
a
;
!
it,
it ? ?
it a
?
?
a
a it a
;
? ?
60 THE MOCK HERCULES.
Xanthias — But how comes it ? — Sophocles ? — Why does not he put forth his claim amongst them ?
JEacus — — No, no!
—
I tell ye ; the first moment that he came,
He's not the kind of man
not he !
He went up to iEschylus and saluted him
And kissed his cheek and took his hand quite kindly ; And jEschylus edged a little from his seat
To give him room, so now the story goes
(At least I had it from Cleidemides) ;
He means to attend there as a stander-by,
Proposing to take up the conqueror ;
If iEschyhis gets the better, well and good,
He gives up his pretensions — but if not
He'll stand a trial, he says, against Euripides.
Xanthias —
There'll be strange doings.
^Eacus — That there will — and shortly — Here — in this place — strange things, I promise you ; A kind of thing that no man could have thought of ; Why, you'll see poetry weighed out and measured.
Xanthias —
What, will they bring their tragedies to the steelyards ?
JEacus — — Yes, will they
with their rules and compasses They'll measure, and examine, and compare,
And bring their plummets, and their lines and levels, To take the bearings — for Euripides
Says that he'll make a survey, word by word.
Xanthias —
JSschylus takes the thing to heart, I doubt.
JEacus —
He bent his brows and pored upon the ground ; I saw him.
Xanthias— Well, but who decides the business ? JEacus —
Why, there the difficulty lies — for judges,
True learned judges, are grown scarce, and JSschylus Objected to the Athenians absolutely.
Xanthias —
Considering them as rogues and villains mostly.
JEacms —
As being ignorant and empty generally;
And in their judgment of the stage particularly. In fine, they've fixed upon that master of yours, As having had some practice in the business.
GREEK WIT AND PHILOSOPHY. 61
GREEK WIT AND PHILOSOPHY. (Mainly from Diogenes Laertiua. ) Maxims of Pythagokas.
Do not stir the fire with a sword [roil the powerful].
Do not sit down on a bushel [idle in daily labor] .
Do not eat your heart [poison your life with envy] .
Do not help men to lay down burdens, but to bear heavier
ones.
Keep your bed packed up [be ready for misfortune].
Do not wear a god's image on a ring [trivialize sacred
things].
Efface the traces of a pot in the ashes [keep your private
affairs secret].
Do not wipe a seat with a lamp [use unsuitable or dangerous
means].
Do not walk in the main street [be independent in judgment].
Do not offer your right hand lightly.
Do not cherish swallows under your roof [? for fear those trying to smoke them out may fire the thatch : a warning against one-sided alliances? ]
Do not cherish birds with crooked talons [birds of prey]. Defile nothing.
Do not stand upon your nail parings or hair cuttings [sweep
away all traces of cast-off foibles ; make each advance in charac ter permanent].
Avoid a sharp sword [as dangerous to the owner as to the
foe].
When traveling, do not look back at your own borders
["let the dead past bury its dead"].
Aristipptts.
The tyrant Dionysius asked him why philosophers infest rich men's houses, not rich men philosophers' houses. Aristip pus answered, "Because philosophers know what they need and rich men don't. " " The same sneer being uttered at another time, he answered, Yes, and physicians infest sick men's houses; but nobody would be the patient rather than the doctor. "
62 GREEK WIT AND PHILOSOPHY.
He once asked Dionysius for money. Dionysius replied, " I thought philosophers had no need of money. " " Give," said Aristippus, " and I will answer you. " Dionysius gave him some gold pieces. " Now" said Aristippus, " I have no need of money. "
Being censured for wasting money on costly food, he an swered, " If you could buy the same things for a dime, wouldn't you do it? " "Yes," was the reply. "Then," he said, "it is you that are stingy, not I that am a gourmet. "
In a storm on shipboard, he showed such fright that another passenger said to him, " We common people keep our heads ; it takes you philosophers to play coward. " "That is because we risk losing something more than such worthless lives as yours," was the reply.
Having vainly tried to gain Dionysius' consent to a request, he at last threw himself at the tyrant's feet, and was successful. On being reproached for so meanly humiliating himself, he re plied, " It is not my fault, but that of Dionysius, who carries his ears in his feet. "
He said he took his friends' money, not so much to use it himself as to teach them how to use it.
His capricious obedience now to lofty theoretic principles and now to self-indulgent practical action caused Plato to say to him, " You are the only one who can wear a sound cloak and a mass of rags at once. "
Bias.
He too was once overtaken by a storm on shipboard. Among his companions were some very bad characters, who began to call on the gods for help. Bias said, " Hold your tongues ; don't let them know you are on board ! "
An unprincipled man asked him what piety was. He made no answer ; and on being asked the reason for his silence, re plied, "Because you are inquiring about things you have no concern with. "
Being shown a temple where votive offerings were hung, from sailors who had been saved from shipwreck after prayers to the gods for help, he asked, "But where are the offerings from those who were drowned after praying for help? "
GREEK WIT AND PHILOSOPHY.
Diogenes.
68
Some one asked him why people gave money to beggars and would not give it to philosophers. He replied, " Because they think they are much more likely to become beggars than phi losophers themselves. "
Plato had denned man as a featherless biped. Diogenes picked the feathers off a chicken and brought it to Plato's school, saying, as he showed it, "This is one of Plato's men. "
Asked when people should marry, he said, "Young men,
not yet; old men, never. " " Asked the best hour to dine, he answered, when you like ; if you are poor, when you can. "
It being argued that there was no such thing as motion, he got on his feet and walked off.
Urged to be initiated into the religious mysteries for his good after death, he answered, " It is ridiculous to suppose Agesilaus and Epaminondas will stay in the dirt, and any scrub who has been initiated will live in the 'Islands of the Blest. '"
At a banquet of Plato's where there were costly carpets, Diogenes stamping on them remarked, "Thus I trample on Plato's pride" ; to which Plato retorted, "With equal pride. "
Being captured and put up for sale as a slave, when asked what he could do, he replied, " Govern men " ; and told the crier to announce that if any one wished to buy a master, here was a chance.
Being shown around the ostentatiously furnished house of a vulgar man, and asked not to spit on anything that would hurt, he spit in the owner's face ; and on being asked the rea son, replied, " Because I had to spit, and there was no other suitable place. "
Alexander the Great came to see him, when he was sitting in the sun, and asked if there was any favor he could do him. Diogenes replied, "Only to stand out of my sunshine. " Alex ander asking, " Are you not afraid of me ? " Diogenes replied, " Why, are you a calamity ? "
A profligate put the inscription above his door, " Let noth ing evil enter. " Said Diogenes to the master, "Where are you going to live ? "
He once went around with a lighted candle in daytime ; and on being asked the reason, answered, " I am looking for an honest man. "
If you are rich,
64 GREEK WIT AND PHILOSOPHY.
At another time he called out, " Holloa, men " ; when they came, he beat them off with a stick, saying, " I called men, not scum. "
The bystanders once pitying his forlorn condition, Plato said, " If you want him to be really an object of pity, come away and don't notice him. "
Perdiccas threatened to put Diogenes to death" for not coming to him when ordered. Diogenes answered, A scor pion could do as much : a real threat would be that you would be very happy if I stayed away. "
He said that an ignorant rich man was like a sheep with a golden fleece (a temptation to shear him).
He praised a bad harp player on the ground that at least he took to harp playing instead of stealing.
Being taunted, " The people of Sinope condemned you to banishment," he answered, "And I condemned them to remain in Sinope. " Heine copied this when, after telling of the bad ends his early betes noire had come to, he closed, "and Professor is still a professor at Gottingen. "
He asked for a public statue, and explained later that he
was practicing how to bear disappointment. " To a man of whom he was begging, he said,
If you have ever given to any one, give to me too ; if not, then begin with
me.
He said Dionysius treated his friends like bags : he hung
up the full ones and threw away the empty ones.
Seeing a ruined profligate making a meal of a few olives, he said to him, " If you had dined so, you would not be supping
80. "
He said a flatterer's speech was like a honeyed halter. Asked what wine he liked best, he said, " Another man's. " Advised to search for his runaway slave, he said, " It is
absurd if my slave can live without me and I can't without him. "
A man reproaching him with previous bad conduct, he replied, " Yes, there was a time when I was like you ; but there never was and never will be one when you are like me. "
Censured for eating in the streets, he replied, "Why, it was there I got hungry. "
When told, " People laugh at you," he replied, " And very likely the asses laugh at them : and both of us pay the same attention to it. "
GREEK WIT AND PHILOSOPHY.
65
He said debauchees were like figs growing on a precipice : the fruit cannot be gathered by men, but only by crows and vultures.
He was the first to call himself a citizen of the world.
Hearing a handsome youth talking nonsense, he said, " Aren't you ashamed to draw a leaden sword out of an ivory scabbard ? " He begged a mina ($20) of a spendthrift, instead of the usual obol (penny). Asked his reason, he said, "I can get
something from the rest another time. "
Listening to two men quibbling over an alleged theft, in
stead of talking straightforwardly, he said they were evidently both guilty : the first was lying when he said he had lost the article, the second when he said he had not stolen it.
Seeing an unskillful archer shooting, he went and sat down by the target.
He said education was good behavior to the young, comfort to the old, riches to the poor, and decoration to the rich.
Antisthenes.
He counseled the Athenians to vote that asses were horses. On their protesting that it was absurd, he rejoined, " But you
make generals the same way. " " Told that Plato spoke ill of him, he said,
It is a royal
privilege to do well and be slandered. "
Jeered at as not the son of free citizens, he said, "And
I am not the son of good wrestlers ; but I can beat you at wrestling. "
He said that envious people were disarmed by their own dispositions, as iron is by rust.
Asked the most needful branch of learning, he said it was to unlearn one's bad habits.
Miscellanea.
Aristotle, being told that some one had slandered him in his absence, replied, " He may beat me too — in my absence. "
Asked why we linger around beautiful things, he answered, "That is a blind man's question. "
" Theophrastus said to a man who kept silence at a symposium,
If you don't know anything, you are acting wisely j if you do,
you are acting foolishly," VOL. IV. 5
66 GllEEK WIT AND PHILOSOPHY.
Demetrius, told that the Athenians had pulled down his statues, answered. " But not my virtues, which they set them up for. "
He said young men ought to show respect to their parents at home, to the public in public, to themselves when alone.
He said that men ought to visit prosperous friends when invited, distressed ones of their own accord.
Alexander the Great ordering the Greek cities to proclaim him a god, the Spartans gave out the decree, " If Alexander
wishes to be a god, let him be a god. " " When Phocion was applauded by the crowd, he said,
What
bad action have I done now ? "
Zeno taught the doctrine of foreordination. One of his ser
vants, "caught in a theft, said, " It was fated that I should steal ; Zeno replied, " Yes, and that you should be beaten for
it. "
He said a friend was another I.
Asked why he never corrected a certain one of his pupils,
he answered, " Because there is nothing to be made of him. " Lacydes, sent for by Attalus, replied, " Statues ought to be
seen at a distance. "
Some one sneering at his studying geometry late in life, and
asking, " Is this a time to be studying ? " he replied, " If it isn't now, when will it be ? " So Diogenes, when he was told, "You ought to rest in your old age," replied, "If I had run a race to reach the goal, should I stop instead of pressing on? "
Bion, blamed for failure to keep a pupil interested, said, "You can't draw up cheese with a hook till it is hard. "
(Collected by Lord Bacon. )
Agesilaus was told that there was a man who could imi tate the nightingale to perfection.
" Why," he said, " I have heard the nightingale herself. "
Themistocles, when the representative of a slender estate put on a lofty tone, said, " Friend, your words would require a whole state to back them up. "
Demosthenes was taunted by -iEschines that his speeches smelt of the lamp. "Yes," he answered, "there is a vast difference between what you and I do by lamplight. "
GREEK WIT AND PHILOSOPHY.
67
Alexander the Great had great offers made him by Darius of Persia after the battle of Issus, if he would retire from Per sia. One of his generals, Parmenio, said, " I would accept them if I were Alexander. " Alexander replied, " So would I if I were Parmenio. "
His father Philip wished him to compete in the foot race at the Olympian Games. He said he would if he could have kings for competitors.
Philip of Macedon was advised to banish a nobleman for speaking ill of him. He replied, "Better have him speak where we are both known than where we are both unknown. "
During the trial of a certain prisoner Philip was drowsy with drink, and at the end sentenced the accused to death. The prisoner said, " I appeal. " Philip, rousing up, asked, " To whom ? " The prisoner answered, " From Philip drunk to Philip sober. "
After the battle of Chaeronea, he sent triumphant letters to Archidamus, king of Sparta. Archidamus wrote back that if he measured his shadow he would find it no longer than before.
He was once peremptorily disputing some technical point with a musician. The latter said, " Sire, God forbid you should have had such hard fortunes as to learn these things better than I. "
He refused to hear an old woman's petition because he had no time. She replied, "Then quit being king. "
When Croesus, the Lydian king, showed Solon his vast treasures, Solon said, " If some one attacks you that has better iron than you, he will have all this gold himself. " Croesus was in fact conquered by Cyrus. "
At a banquet to which the Seven Wise Men of Greece had been invited by a barbarian king's ambassador, he told them his master was menaced with destruction by a neighbor ing king, who made impossible demands under threat of war. The last order was that he should drink up the sea. One of the wise men said, "Let him agree to do it. " "How? " said the ambassador. " Why," said the Greek sage, " let him tell the other king to first shut off all the rivers which run into the sea, as being no part of the bargain, and then he will fulfill his part. "
"
68
THE CAMPAIGN OF CYRUS THE YOUNGER
THE CAMPAIGN OF CYRUS THE YOUNGER. By XENOPHON.
(Translated by H. O. Dakyns. )
[Xenophon, the famous Greek general and historian, was born at Athens about b. c. 450. He was a pupil and friend of Socrates, whose biography he wrote in the "Memorabilia. " He joined the expedition of Cyrus the Younger as a volunteer, and on the murder of the generals after the battle of Cunaxa was made commander of the retreat, the celebrated " Retreat of the Ten Thou sand. " Later he served in the Spartan army and was banished by Athens ; he lived some twenty years in Elis, but the time and place of his death are not known. His chief work is the "Anabasis," describing the expedition of Cyrus and the retreat. He also wrote a history of Grecian affairs, the "Hellenica" ; the "Cyropaedia," a pretended biography of Cyrus the Great, really an ideal dream of a boy's education and a social state ; and other things. ]
Darius and Parysatis had two sons : the elder was named Artaxerxes, and the younger Cyrus. Now, as Darius lay sick and felt that the end of life drew near, he wished both his sons to be with him. The elder, as it chanced, was already there, but Cyrus he must needs send for from the province over which he had made him satrap, having appointed him general, more over, of all the forces that muster in the plain of the Castolus. Thus Cyrus went up, taking with him Tissaphernes as his friend, and accompanied also by a body of Hellenes, three hun dred heavy armed men, under the command of Xenias the Parrhasian.
Now when Darius was dead, and Artaxerxes was established in the kingdom, Tissaphernes brought slanderous accusation against Cyrus before his brother, the king, of harboring designs against him. And Artaxerxes, listening to the words of Tissa phernes, laid hands upon Cyrus, desiring to put him to death ; but his mother made intercession for him, and sent him back again in safety to his province. He then, having so escaped through peril and dishonor, fell to considering, not only how he might avoid ever again being in his brother's power, but how, if possible, he might become king in his stead. Parysatis, his mother, was his first resource ; for she had more love for Cyrus than for Artaxerxes upon his throne. Moreover, Cyrus's behavior towards all who came to him from the king's
•
THE CAMPAIGN OF CYRUS THE YOUNGER. 69
court was such that when he sent them away again, they were better friends to himself than to the king his brother. Nor did he neglect the barbarians in his own service ; but trained them, at once to be capable as warriors and devoted adherents of him self. Lastly, he began collecting his Hellenic armament, but with the utmost secrecy, so that he might take the king as far as might be at unawares.
The manner in which he contrived the levying of the troops was as follows : First, he sent orders to the commandants of garrisons in the cities (so held by him), bidding them to get together as large a body of picked Peloponnesian troops as they severally were able, on the plea that Tissaphernes was plotting against their cities ; and truly these cities of Ionia had origi nally belonged to Tissaphernes, being given to him by the king ; but at this time, with the exception of Miletus, they had all revolted to Cyrus. In Miletus, Tissaphernes, having become aware of similar designs, had forestalled the conspirators by putting some to death and banishing the remainder. Cyrus, on his side, welcomed these fugitives, and, having collected an army, laid siege to Miletus by sea and land, endeavoring to reinstate the exiles ; and this gave him another pretext for collecting an armament. At the same time he sent to the king, and claimed, as being the king's brother, that these cities should be given to himself rather than that Tissaphernes should con tinue to govern them ; and in furtherance of this end, the queen, his mother, cooperated with him, so that the king not only failed to see the design against himself, but concluded that Cyrus was spending his money on armaments in order to make war on Tissaphernes. Nor did it pain him greatly
to see the two at war together, and the less so because Cyrus was careful to remit the tribute due to the king from the cities which belonged to Tissaphernes.
A third army was being collected for him in the Chersonese, over against Abydos, the origin of which was as follows : There was a Lacedaemonian exile, named Clearchus, with whom Cyrus had become associated. Cyrus admired the man, and made him a present of ten thousand darics [$50,000]. Clearchus took the gold, and with the money raised an army, and using the Chersonese as his base of operations, set to work to fight the Thracians north of the Hellespont, in the interests of the Hel lenes, and with such happy result that the Hellespontine cities, of their own accord, were eager to contribute funds for the
70 THE CAMPAIGN OF CYRUS THE YOUNGER.
support of his troops. In this way, again, an armament was being secretly maintained for Cyrus.
Then there was the Thessalian Aristippus, Cyrus's friend, who, under pressure of the rival political party at home, had come to Cyrus and asked him for pay for two thousand mer cenaries, to be continued for three months, which would enable him, he said, to gain the upper hand of his antagonists. Cyrus replied by presenting him with six months' pay for four thou sand mercenaries, only stipulating that Aristippus should not come to terms with his antagonists without final consultation with himself. In this way he secured to himself the secret maintenance of a fourth armament.
Further, he bade Proxenus, a Boeotian, who was another friend, get together as many men as possible, and join him on an expedition which he meditated against the Pisidians, who were causing annoyance to his territory. Similarly two other friends, Sophaenetus the Stymphalian, and Socrates the Achaean, had orders to get together as many men as possible and come to him, since he was on the point of opening a campaign, along with the Milesian exiles, against Tissaphernes. These orders were duly carried out by the two in question.
But when the right moment seemed to him to have come, at which he should begin his march into the interior, the pretext which he put forward was his desire to expel the Pisidians utterly out of the country ; and he began collect ing both his Asiatic and his Hellenic armaments, avowedly against that people. From Sardis in each direction his orders sped. . . .
But Tissaphernes did not fail to note these proceedings. An equipment so large pointed to something more than an invasion of Pisidia : so he argued ; and with what speed he might, he set off to the king, attended by about five hundred horse. The king, on his side, had no sooner heard from Tissa phernes of Cyrus's great armament, than he began to make counter preparations. . . .
As Cyrus advanced from this point (opposite Charmande), he came upon the hoof prints and dung of horses at frequent intervals. It looked like the trail of some two thousand horses. Keeping ahead of the army, these fellows burned up the grass and everything else that was good for use. Now there was a Persian, named Orontas ; he was closely related to the king by birth : and in matters pertaining to war reckoned among the
THE CAMPAIGN OF CYRUS THE YOUNGER.
71
best of Persian warriors. Having formerly been at war with Cyrus, and afterwards reconciled to him, he now made a con spiracy to destroy him. He made a proposal to Cyrus : if Cyrus would furnish him with a thousand horsemen, he would deal with these troopers, who were burning down everything in front of them ; he would lay an ambuscade and cut them down, or he would capture a host of them alive : in any case, he would put a stop to their aggressiveness and burnings ; he would see to it that they did not ever get a chance of setting eyes on Cyrus's army and reporting its advent to the king.
The proposal seemed plausible to Cyrus, who accordingly authorized Orontas to take a detachment from each of the generals, and be gone. He, thinking that he had got his horsemen ready to his hand, wrote a letter to the king, an nouncing that he would erelong join him with as many troopers as he could bring ; he bade him, at the same time, instruct the royal cavalry to welcome him on arrival as a friend. The letter further contained certain reminders of his former friendship and fidelity. This dispatch he delivered into the hands of one who was a trusty messenger, as he thought ; but the bearer took and gave it to Cyrus. Cyrus read it. Orontas was arrested. Then Cyrus summoned to his tent seven of the noblest Persians among his personal attendants, and sent orders to the Hellenic generals to bring up a body of hoplites. These troops were to take up a position round his tent. This the generals did, bringing up about three thousand hoplites. Clearchus was also invited inside, to assist at the court martial : a compliment due to the position he held among the other generals, in the opinion not only of Cyrus, but also of the rest of the court. When he came out, he reported the circumstances of the trial (as to which, indeed, there was no mystery) to his friends.
He said that Cyrus opened the inquiry with these words : " I have invited you hither, my friends, that I may take advice with you, and carry out whatever, in the sight of God and man, it is right for me to do, as concerning the man before you, Oron tas. The prisoner was, in the first instance, given to me by my father, to be my faithful subject. In the next place, acting, to use his own words, under the orders of my brother, and having hold of the acropolis of Sardis, he went to war with me. I met war with war, and forced him to think it more prudent to desist from war with me : whereupon we shook hands, exchanging
72 THE CAMPAIGN OF CYRUS THE YOUNGER.
solemn pledges. After that," and at this point Cyrus turned to Orontas, and addressed him personally, — " After that, did I do you any wrong? " Answer, "Never. " Again, another question, "Then later on, having received, as you admit, no injury from me, did you revolt to the Mysians and injure my territory, as far as in you lay? " — "I did," was the reply. " Then, once more having discovered the limits of your power, did you flee to the altar of Artemis, crying out that you re pented ? and did you thus work upon my feelings, that we a second time shook hands and made interchange of solemn pledges ? Are these things so ? " Orontas again assented. " Then what injury have you received from me," Cyrus asked, "that now, for the third time, you have been detected in a
treasonous plot against me? " — " No injury," Orontas replied. And Cyrus asked once more, "You plead guilty to having
sinned against me ? " — "
"I must needs do so," he answered.
But the day may come, may it not, when you will once again be hostile to my brother, and a faithful friend to myself ? " The other answered, " Even
such is his language now. I now call upon you, and you first, Clearchus, to declare your opinion — what think you ? " And Clearchus answered, "My advice to you is to put this man out of the way as soon as may be, so that we may be saved the necessity of watching him, and have more leisure, as far as he is concerned, to requite the services of those whose friendship is sinoere. " — "To this opinion," he told us, "the rest of the court adhered. " After that, at the bidding of Cyrus, each of those present, in turn, including the kinsmen of Orontas, took him by the girdle ; which is as much as to say, " Let him die the death," and then those appointed led him out ; and they who in old days were wont to do obeisance to him, could not refrain, even at that moment, from bowing down before him, albeit they knew he was being led forth to death.
After they had conducted him to the tent of Artapates, the trustiest of Cyrus's wand bearers, none set eyes upon him ever again, alive or dead. No one, of his own knowledge, could declare the manner of his death ; though some conjectured one thing and some another. No tomb to mark his resting place, either then or since, was ever seen. . . .
Then Cyrus put one more question,
if I were, you could never be brought to believe it, Cyrus. "
At this point Cyrus turned to those who were present and said : " Such has been the conduct of the prisoner in the past :
THE CAMPAIGN OF CYRUS THE YOUNGER. 73
From this place Cyrus advanced one stage — three par- asangs — with his troops in order of battle. He expected the king to give battle the same day; for in the middle of this day's march a deep sunk trench was reached, thirty feet broad and eighteen feet deep. The trench was carried inland through the plain, twelve parasangs' distance, to the wall of Media. Here are canals, flowing from the river Tigris ; they are four in number, each a hundred feet broad, and very deep, with corn ships plying upon them ; they empty themselves into the Euphrates, are at intervals of one parasang apart, and spanned by bridges.
Between the Euphrates and the trench was a narrow pas sage, twenty feet only in breadth. The trench itself had been constructed by the great king upon hearing of Cyrus'B approaoh, to serve as a line of defense. Through this narrow passage then Cyrus and his army passed, and found themselves safe inside the trench. So there was no battle to be fought with the king that day ; only there were numerous unmistakable traces of horse and infantry in retreat.
As the king had failed to hinder the passage of Cyrus's army at the trench, Cyrus himself and the rest concluded that he must have abandoned the idea of offering battle, so that next day Cyrus advanced with less than his former caution. On the third day he was conducting the march, seated in his carriage, with only a small body of troops drawn up in front of him. The mass of the army was moving on in no kind of order, the sol diers having consigned their heavy arms to be carried in the wagons or on the backs of beasts.
It was already about full market time and the halting place at which the army was to take up quarters was nearly reached, when Pategyas, a Persian, a trusty member of Cyrus's personal staff, came galloping up at full speed on his horse, which was bathed in sweat, and to every one he met he shouted in Greek and Persian, as fast as he could ejaculate the words, " The king is advancing with a large army ready for battle. " Then ensued a scene of wild confusion. The Hellenes and all alike were ex pecting to be attacked on the instant, and before they could form their lines. Cyrus sprang from his carriage and donned his corselet ; then leaping on to his charger's back, with the javelins firmly clutched, he passed the order to the rest, to arm themselves and fall into their several ranks.
The orders were carried out with alacrity ; the ranks shaped
74 THE CAMPAIGN OF CYKUS THE YOUNGER.
themselves. Clearchus held the right of the wing resting on the Euphrates, Proxenus was next, and after him the rest, while Menon with his troops held the Hellenic left. Of the Asiatics, a body of Paphlagonian cavalry, one thousand strong, were posted beside Clearchus on the right, and with them stood the Hellenic peltasts. On the left was Ariaeus, Cyrus's second in command, and the rest of the barbarian host. Cyrus was with his bodyguard of cavalry about six hundred strong, all armed with corselets like Cyrus, and cuisses and helmets ; but not so Cyrus : he went into battle with head unhelmeted. So, too, all the horses with Cyrus wore forehead pieces and breast pieces, and the troopers carried short Hellenic swords.
It was now midday, and the enemy was not yet in sight ; but with the approach of afternoon was seen dust like a white cloud, and after a considerable interval a black pall as it were spread far and high over the plain. As they came nearer, very soon was seen here and there a glint of bronze and spear points, and the ranks could plainly be distinguished. On the left were troopers wearing white cuirasses. That is Tissaphernes in com mand, they said, and next to these a body of men bearing wicker shields, and next again heavy-armed infantry, with long wooden shields reaching to the feet. These were the Egyptians, they said, and then other cavalry, other bowmen ; all were in national divisions, each nation marching in densely crowded squares. And all along their front was a line of chariots at considerable intervals from one another, — the famous scythe chariots, as they were named, — having their scythes fitted to the axletrees and stretching out slantwise, while others protruded under the chariot seats, facing the ground, so as to cut through all they encountered. The design was to let them dash full speed into the ranks of the Hellenes and cut them through.
Curiously enough the anticipation of Cyrus, when at the council of war he admonished the Hellenes not to mind the shouting of the Asiatics, was not justified. Instead of shout ing, they came on in deep silence, softly and slowly, with even tread. At this instant, Cyrus, riding past in person, accom panied by Pigres, his interpreter, and three or four others, called aloud to Clearchus to advance against the enemy's center, for there the king was to be found. " And if we strike home at this point," he added, "our work is finished. " Clearchus, though he could see the compact body at the center, and had been told by Cyrus that the king lay outside the Hellenic left
THE CAMPAIGN OF CYRUS THE YOUNGER. 75
(for, owing to numerical superiority, the king, while holding his own center, could well overlap Cyrus's extreme left), still hesitated to draw off his right wing from the river, for fear of being turned on both flanks ; and he simply replied, assuring Cyrus that he would take care all went well.
At this time the barbarian army was evenly advancing, and the Hellenic division was still riveted to the spot, completing its formation as the various contingents came up. Cyrus, rid ing past at some distance from the lines, glanced his eye first in one direction and then in the other, so as to take a complete survey of friends and foes : when Xenophon the Athenian, see ing him, rode up from the Hellenic quarter to meet him, asking whether he had any orders to give. Cyrus, pulling up his horse, begged him to make the announcement generally known that the omens from the victims, internal and external alike, were good. While he was still speaking, he heard a confused murmur passing through the ranks, and asked what it meant. The other replied that it was the watchword being passed down for the second time. Cyrus wondered who had given the or der, and asked what the watchword was. On being told it was " Zeus our Savior and Victory," he replied, " I accept it ; so let it be," and with that remark rode away to his own position. And now the two battle lines were no more than three or four furlongs apart, when the Hellenes began chanting the paean, and at the same time advanced against the enemy.
But with the forward movement a certain portion of the line curved onwards in advance, with wavelike sinuosity, and the portion left behind quickened to a run ; and simultaneously a thrilling cry burst from all lips, like that in honor of the war god — eleleu ! eleleu ! and the running became general. Some say they clashed their shields and spears, thereby causing ter ror to the horses ; and before they had got within arrow shot the barbarians swerved and took to flight. And now the Hel lenes gave chase with might and main, checked only by shouts to one another not to race, but to keep their ranks. The enemy's chariots, reft of their charioteers, swept onwards, some through the enemy themselves, others past the Hellenes. They, as they saw them coming, opened a gap and let them pass. One fellow, like some dumfoundered mortal on a race course, was caught by the heels, but even he, they said, received no hurt; nor indeed, with the single exception of some one on the left wing who was said to have been wounded
76 THE CAMPAIGN OF CYRUS THE YOUNGER.
by an arrow, did any Hellene in this battle suffer a single hurt.
Cyrus , seeing the Hellenes conquering, as far as they at any rate were concerned, and in hot pursuit, was well content ; but in spite of his joy and the salutations offered him at that moment by those about him, as though he were already king, he was not led away to join in the pursuit, but keeping his squadron of six hundred horsemen in close order, waited and watched to see what the king himself would do. The king, he knew, held the center of the Persian army. Indeed, it is the fashion for the Asiatic monarch to occupy that position during action, for this twofold reason : he holds the safest place, with his troops on either side of him, while, if he has occasion to dispatch any necessary order along the lines, his troops will receive the message in half the time. The king accordingly on thi3 occasion held the center of his army, but for all that he was outside Cyrus's left wing ; and seeing that no one offered him battle in front, nor yet the troops in front of him, he wheeled as if to encircle the enemy. It was then that Cyrus, in apprehension lest the king might get round to the rear and cut to pieces the Hellenic body, charged to meet him. Attacking with his six hundred, he mastered the line of troops in front of the king, and put to flight the six thousand, cutting down, as is said, with his own hand their general, Artagerses.
But as soon as the rout commenced, Cyrus's own six hundred themselves, in the ardor of pursuit, were scattered, with the exception of a handful who were left with Cyrus him self — chiefly his table companions, so called. Left alone with these, he caught sight of the king and the close throng about him. Unable longer to contain himself, with a cry, " I see the man," he rushed at him and dealt a blow at his chest, wound ing him through the corselet. This according to the statement of Ctesias the surgeon, who further states that he himself healed the wound. As Cyrus delivered the blow, some one struck him with a javelin under the eye severely ; and in the struggle which then ensued between the king and Cyrus and those about them to protect one or other, we have the state ment of Ctesias as to the number slain on the king's side, for he was by his side. On the other, Cyrus himself fell, and eight of his bravest companions lay on the top of him. The story says that Artapates, the trustiest esquire among his wand
THE CAMPAIGN OF CYRUS THE YOUNGER. 77
bearers, when he saw that Cyrus had fallen to the ground, leaped from his horse and threw his arms about him. Then, as one account says, the king bade one slay him as a worthy victim to his brother : others say that Artapates drew his scimeter and slew himself by his own hand. A golden scimeter it is true, he had ; he wore also a collar and bracelets and the other ornaments such as the noblest Persians wear ; for his kindliness and fidelity had won him honors at the hands of Cyrus.
So died Cyrus; a man the kingliest and most worthy to rule of all the Persians who have lived since the elder Cyrus : according to the concurrent testimony of all who are reputed to have known him intimately. To begin from the beginning, when still a boy, and whilst being brought up with his brother and the other lads, his unrivaled excellence was recognized.